Interlaboratory comparison of size measurements on nanoparticles using nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA)

Abstract

One of the key challenges in the field of nanoparticle (NP) analysis is in producing reliable and reproducible characterisation data for nanomaterials. This study looks at the reproducibility using a relatively new, but rapidly adopted, technique, Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) on a range of particle sizes and materials in several different media. It describes the protocol development and presents both the data and analysis of results obtained from 12 laboratories, mostly based in Europe, who are primarily QualityNano members. QualityNano is an EU FP7 funded Research Infrastructure that integrates 28 European analytical and experimental facilities in nanotechnology, medicine and natural sciences with the goal of developing and implementing best practice and quality in all aspects of nanosafety assessment. This study looks at both the development of the protocol and how this leads to highly reproducible results amongst participants. In this study, the parameter being measured is the modal particle size.

Targeted polyethylene glycol gold nanoparticles for the treatment of pancreatic cancer: from synthesis to proof-of-concept in vitro studies

“…This equipment utilizes the properties of light scattering and Brownian motion to obtain particle size distributions of samples in liquid suspension. 42 PEGAuNPs were diluted in PBS and fetal bovine serum (FBS), as well as in complete cell culture medium (ie, Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium [DMEM] supplemented with 10% FBS). The latter was included in order to evaluate potential interactions between PEG-AuNPs and the environment used in in vitro PoC studies.…”

Characterisation of particles in solution – a perspective on light scattering and comparative technologies

“…It is possible to determine D t from measuring the mean squared displacement of a particle in one, two or three dimensions at a given time ( t ) (Equation 2(a,b,c), respectively) [18,19] …”

“…In the case of the characterisation of NPs of biological origin, the NTA technique offers the greatest flexibility and robustness [17,39,40]. The ability to analyse samples in simple and complex biological media [3,19,25,41,42] is of distinct advantage when characterising materials under physiological conditions. Size distribution analysis can be accurately and robustly performed for each of the populations in the sample.…”

The nasal delivery of nanoencapsulated statins – an approach for brain delivery

“…This value is then converted into particle size on the basis of a variation of Stokes-Einstein equation taking into account that the motion is tracked in two dimensions: x y 2 is the meansquared displacement of a particle during time t at temperature T, in a medium of viscosity η, with a hydrodynamic diameter of d h . 34 Furthermore, knowing the volume of the suspension and the dilution, the associated NTA software is capable of calculating an approximate concentration of the nanoparticles inside the colloidal suspension. 35 Only SVT-LCN_MaiLab were analyzed by NTA.…”